News

Kangaroo cull to start Wednesday

The annual kangaroo cull begins in Canberra on Wednesday night. Shooter’s have been set a target of 1606, an increase of 450 over last year, according to The Canberra Times.

This year’s cull will include a fertility control on 500 kangaroos.

Eight reserves will be closed from Wednesday night – Callum Brae off Mugga Lane, Goorooyarroo and adjacent land in Gungahlin, Jerrabomberra Grassland West, Kama near Hawker, Mount Painter near Cook, Mulanggari in Gungahlin, Mulligans Flat in Gungahlin, and the Pinnacle and adjacent land near Hawker.

Mount Painter and the Pinnacle will close 5pm to 7pm and the others 3pm to 7am.

The fertility control program is partly being spurred by a cost saving at ‘only’ $200 per kangaroo, compared with $340 per kangaroo for shooting (the cost from last year’s cull).

Who shoots them? Is there a local rifle club that goes on a hunt or do they send in the army or what? And more importantly, will roo meat be on sale at IGA next week?
(I’ve moved here from the city, didn’t know they did this!)

Noticeable that they haven’t released detailed numbers from the annual counts, or the “target” number for each reserve. Probably because previous years’ count numbers have shown biologically impossible recovery rates. That means the kangaroos have to be moving in from elsewhere. If you can’t stop them moving in, it’s like trying to empty the sea with a teaspoon. Until the population across the ACT is hugely reduced, there’ll be no long-term effect on the number of roos in those reserves.

Now you may think that’s a good thing, but the point is that is NOT what the ACT Government is saying. Likely they are just wasting your money.

After several years of culling there has still been no evaluation, yet the contraception trial won’t go ahead without rigorous evaluation. Why should it be evaluated when the cull isn’t?

Shane Rattenbury’s political maneuvering on maintaining kangaroo populations in ACT nature reserves is disappointing. Alternatives to culling are pulled out of the bag just at politically sensitive times: a kangaroo relocation trial was announced just before last year’s federal election but was not pursued thereafter; a kangaroo fertility trial is announced just when the reserves are being closed for the next cull. As an incoming minister Shane Rattenbury now has had close to two years to properly instigate alternatives to drive-by-night shootings and joey bashings and beheadings. Making phony announcements just at politically sensitive times is not fair dinkum. I had expected better from a Greens minister. Shame on you Shane.

Shane Rattenbury’s political maneuvering on maintaining kangaroo populations in ACT nature reserves is disappointing. Alternatives to culling are pulled out of the bag just at politically sensitive times: a kangaroo relocation trial was announced just before last year’s federal election but was not pursued thereafter; a kangaroo fertility trial is announced just when the reserves are being closed for the next cull. As an incoming minister Shane Rattenbury now has had close to two years to properly instigate alternatives to drive-by-night shootings and joey bashings and beheadings. Making phony announcements just at politically sensitive times is not fair dinkum. I had expected better from a Greens minister. Shame on you Shane.

And it remains unproven (at least some experts think so, probably more than think it is proven) that the cull is necessary, nor that it has the slightest impact. Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

When they lose (again) I hope they are forced to pay costs of court, government lawyers fees and the wages of everyone concerned in this.

They should also have to pay $340 per kangaroo that is culled. If it wasn’t for their interference in the methodology it could be done quickly and cleanly in one afternoon at a total cost of around $500

Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

Come on, surely your parents gave you the “talk”? When daddy skippy likes mummy skippy a lot the result is lots of little hoppers. In some cases lots and lots, the population on the Lawson site grew by 75% in one year from breeding.